System and method of remote FAX interconnect technology

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides systems and methods for the virtualization, aggregation, and distributed processing of facsimile communications. The Remote FAX Interconnect known as etherFAX® is a system and method that allows for the reception and delivery of information based on cloud computing infrastructure to or from one or more facsimile systems using Internet/web based communication protocols such as HTTP(S) as the transport between a facsimile capable application or hardware and the remotely accessible etherFAX® services.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation of application Ser. No.13/175,063 filed Jul. 1, 2011, and claims benefit of Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/360,583, filed Jul. 1, 2010, each of which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to FAX (facsimile)communications technology. More particularly, the present inventionrelates to methods, apparatus, and systems for the remote aggregation ofFAX communication interconnect technology employing both packet-switchedand traditional telephone networking technologies.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of Invention

The present invention relates to the aggregation of facsimilecommunications technology, and more particularly, to the enablement ofremote access and operations of this technology.

2. Description of Related Art

Facsimile document imaging technology has been commercially availabledating back to the early 1980's. Scanning an image into a digitalrepresentation and communicating that over the Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (PSTN) via a dedicated hardware device is a well understood andwidely used technology. As the popularity of this technology grew andbecame commonly adopted by business and consumers for rapid distributionof documents and information, to further reduce costs, there was a needto develop technology that provided simple aggregation of facsimilecommunications into a technology known as a FAX Server (FIG. 1). Thistechnology is described in great detail in such documents as U.S. Pat.No. 5,552,901 (Kikuchi, et al) and Japanese patent 03-044230 (Tadashi).These improvements allowed consumers to centralize facsimile resourceson a corporate network within the organization, enabling desktopcomputing platforms and other multifunction printing and scanning faxproducts to take advantage of facsimile services without requiringdedicated fax hardware at each station. FIG. 1 shows the conventionaldeployment of fax server technology to anyone schooled in the art.Briefly, for outgoing documents, fax servers (100) accept documents in avariety of different electronic formats generated by differentapplications or devices (130,140,150) and potentially converts them to anecessary facsimile format (typically a black and white image) withinspecialized hardware and software (100, 110) required for subsequenttransmittal over telephone devices, networks and services (160,120,170)to at least one peer receiving facsimile system (180). For inboundfacsimiles, fax servers (100) receive the inbound facsimile informationover telephone devices, networks, and services (160,120,170) from peerfacsimile devices (180) and potentially convert and store the receivedtransmission for latter retrieval or forward the received informationvia a number of different electronic formats, to applications (130,150)such as email, or purpose built devices (140). This technology is alsowell understood by persons who are schooled in the art.

Fax server technology is not without its own set of limitations andrequirements. Traditionally, these fax serves (100) are under thepurview of a business's network and/or telecom administrator. This setof individuals must not only possess the correct knowledge for operatingthese devices, but interfacing the technology to both the localcomputing network infrastructure (130,140,150) as well asinterfacing/provisioning the fax server equipment (110) to the telephonecompany's appropriate type of PSTN/PBX circuit such as PRI/T1/E1/analogline, etc. (120,160,170). Given these requirements, the total cost ofownership of these systems, including the recurring fees to interconnectwith the telephone carrier network (170) may be prohibitively expensivefor many organizations, leaving them at a significant disadvantage.Furthermore, with the plethora of newer voice communications optionssuch as Voice over IP, many businesses are opting to use alternativemethods for interconnecting their voice services, not all of which meetthe stringent timing requirements of a facsimile transmission.

In view of the circumstances and limitations of the prior art, as wellas considering the migration by businesses of network resources to cloudcomputing environments, it would be highly desirable to provide asolution that transparently addresses the characteristics of facsimileservices, further reduces the total cost of ownership of these systems,and maintain compatibility with existing fax enable applications(130,150) and devices (140,100) even when deployed over non-traditionaltelephony networks.

SUMMARY OF CERTAIN EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides systems and methods for the aggregationof and the distributed processing of facsimile communications.

The Remote FAX Interconnect known as etherFAX® is a system and methodthat allows for the reception and delivery of information based on cloudcomputing infrastructure to or from one or more facsimile systems usingInternet/web based communication protocols such as HTTP(S) as thetransport between a facsimile capable application or hardware and theremotely accessible etherFAX® services.

Aspects of the inventions also provide for the virtualization offacsimile interconnect devices to enable remote aggregation of thephysical facsimile interconnect.

Aspects of the inventions also provide the ability for reducing theoverhead required for the transmission of the facsimile communicationsbetween the etherFAX® services and the fax capable application ordevices.

Aspects of the invention also provide a system for secure communicationof fax information as well as other management and control data with theetherFAX® system.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only,and are not restrictive of the invention as claimed. The accompanyingdrawings constitute a part of the specification, illustrate certainembodiments of the invention and, together with the detaileddescription, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

In light of the forgoing information an exemplary embodiment of theinvention provides for:

-   -   A system and method of facilitating the virtualization of        facsimile hardware, the aggregation of facsimile communications        hardware in a cloud-computing environment, enabling the        facsimile information to traverse at least one data network        providing an interconnect between at least one virtualized        facsimile interface and the cloud computing environment and have        the facsimile information traverse at least one telephony        network interconnect between the cloud-computing environment and        at least one peer facsimile system, comprising:        -   a virtual facsimile interface loosely coupled to a data            network configure to communicate facsimile information with            a cloud computing environment over the data communications            network;        -   a cloud-computing environment that has interconnects to the            data communications network as well as to at least one            telephony network;        -   the cloud computing environment also housing facsimile            capable hardware that enables communications with at least            one peer facsimile system;        -   and enabling the communications of facsimile information            between the at least one virtualized facsimile interface            loosely coupled to the data network and the at least one            peer facsimile system loosely coupled to the telephony            network through the cloud computing environment;        -   using Internet protocols to communicate the facsimile            information between the cloud computing environment and the            virtualized facsimile interface loosely coupled to the data            network and        -   using the aggregated facsimile hardware within the cloud            computing environment to enable facsimile communications            between the cloud computing environment and the at least one            peer facsimile system.    -   A system and method of facilitating the virtualization of        facsimile interfaces, the aggregation of facsimile        communications hardware in a cloud-computing environment,        enabling the facsimile information to traverse at least one data        network providing an interconnect between at least one        virtualized facsimile interface and the cloud computing        environment and have the facsimile information traverse the at        least one data network interconnect between the cloud-computing        environment and at least a second virtualized facsimile        interface, comprising:        -   a first virtualized facsimile interface loosely coupled to a            data network configure to communicate facsimile information            with a cloud computing environment over a data            communications network;        -   at least a second virtualized facsimile interface loosely            coupled to a data network configure to communicate facsimile            information with a cloud computing environment over a data            communications network;        -   the cloud computing environment also housing facsimile            capable hardware wherein the cloud computing environment            enables communications between the at least the first and            the second virtualized facsimile interfaces;        -   and enabling the communications of facsimile information            between the first virtualized facsimile interface loosely            coupled to a data network and the at least second            virtualized facsimile hardware loosely coupled to a data            network through the cloud computing environment;        -   using internet protocols to communicate the facsimile            information between the cloud computing environment and the            first virtualized facsimile interface and        -   using internet protocols to communicate the facsimile            information between the cloud computing environment and the            at least second virtualized facsimile interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention can be more fully understood by reading the followingdetailed description together with the accompanying drawings, in whichlike reference indicators are used to designate like elements, and inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram depicting fax application and servertechnology as is known in the art.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram depicting etherFAX® services according toan embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram depicting the etherFAX® virtual fax driver(web client) according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram depicting the etherFAX® service interface(web services) according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram depiction the etherFAX® fax board serveraccording to an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Certain embodiments of the present invention and their advantages may beunderstood by referring to FIGS. 2-5, wherein like reference numeralsrefer to like elements, and are describe in the context of a facsimilesystem. Nevertheless, the present invention is applicable to alternativeembodiments and alternate communication technologies such as describedin, but not limited to, Internet RFC 4160 (Internet Fax GatewayRequirements and its siblings) or other Fax over IP methodologies, thatenable communications between facsimile enabled applications or devices.

FIG. 2 depicts an exemplary embodiment of the Remote FAX Interconnectsystem known as etherFAX®. Unlike FIG. 1 where high cost components andnetwork access services (100,110,120,160,170) are required at eachlocation a traditional fax server is deployed, the etherFAX® modeldepicted in FIG. 2 allows for virtualization of the high cost components(210) to be coalesced and access to the network services (280) to beaggregated at a more centralized location (260). However, by maintainingcompatibility with the communications logic at the fax server (200)general applications (230) such as email, or purpose build applications(250) and devices (240) can continue to operate without modification.Furthermore, organizations can now potentially collapse their networkinterconnect requirements to a single network provider orinfrastructure, such as the Internet, that can provides both voice anddata, therefore reducing overall cost of ownership.

It is to be understood due to organizational or customer requirements,there may be more than one fax server (200) installed that includes morethan one virtualized etherFAX® adapter (210), either geographically orlogistically dispersed by a organization for a variety of reasons,including, but not limited to redundancy, capacity planning, and/orcost. Furthermore it is to be understood that there may be more than oneetherFAX® cloud data center (260) geographically or logisticallydispersed for a variety of reason, including, but not limited toredundancy, capacity planning, and/or cost. The more than one etherFAX®cloud data center (260) may also be interconnected via a variety ofdifferent data networks, whether that be direct backhauls, wireless,virtual private networks, or other methodologies that enablecommunications between two cooperating peers. The more than onevirtualized etherFAX® adapter (210) may be so configure to allow it tocommunicate with the more than one etherFAX® cloud data center (260) fora variety of reasons including, but not limited to redundancy, capacityplanning, and/or cost.

Considering the aforementioned information, for the sake of brevity andclarity the following exemplary description will enumerate the flow ofinformation between general applications (230), purpose builtapplications (250) or devices (240) and the at least one facsimile peersystem (290) through a single instance of fax server (200) and anetherFAX® cloud data center (260). More intricate arrangements of thesecomponents can be easily envisioned by those schooled in the art.

More specifically, when applications (230) and (250), or device (240)want to send facsimile information, they continue to communicate withfax server (200) as they generally would. Upon reception, fax server(200) would then potentially convert the incoming information from thevariety of electronic formats into the appropriate facsimile format usedfor subsequent transmission to at least one peer facsimile system (290).However instead of queuing the information to a locally coupledfacsimile hardware, the information is passed to the virtualizedetherFAX® adapter (210). The virtual adapter (210) would theninstantiate the appropriate communications between itself and theetherFAX® cloud data center (260) through the organizations data networkconnection. The data communication could take place through many ormultiple diverse paths such as over an organization's public Internetconnection (270) or potentially through a direct private backhaulbetween the organization and the etherFAX® cloud data center (260).Additionally these communications could be secured using payloadspecific security, transport layer security, such as widely acceptedIETF SSL/TLS standards, or passed through industry standard virtualprivate network (VPN) tunnel such as IPSec. It is to be appreciated thatanyone or more of these security methodologies may be combined toprovide a layered security-in-depth approach for sensitivecommunications.

Once the communications is instantiated between the virtualizedetherFAX® adapter (210) and the etherFAX® cloud data center (260), thefacsimile information is transferred to the etherFAX® cloud data center(260) for subsequent transmission to the at least one peer facsimilesystem (290). Upon receipt of the facsimile information, the etherFAX®cloud data center (260) allocates the necessary resources needed tocommunicate the fax information onto its ultimate destination(s),potentially over the at least one of its telephony service providers(280). Of note, the remote facsimile communication hardware located atetherFAX® cloud data center (260), actively monitors and potentiallyrecording the progress of the communications checking page progress,connect time, remote facsimile CSID (caller subscriber id), while intransit. Upon such successful completion of the transmission to the atleast one peer facsimile systems (290), a success status may be returnedthrough the data network (230,270) to fax server (210) signalingcompletion of the request. If an error conditions occurs duringtransmission of the fax information to the at least one peer facsimilesystem (290), different scenarios may occur based on error status, theetherFAX® account parameters, the operations of the requestingapplication (230, 250), device (240), or the fax server (200). The mostbasic scenario is that an error status is returned back through the datanetwork (230,270) to fax server (210) which may then be propagated backto the originating device (240) or application (230,250). Base on theerror status returned, the application or device may then have theability to resubmit the request to retransmit the information to the atleast one peer facsimile system (290) through fax server (200).

Another alternative embodiment is for the etherFAX® cloud data center(260) to retry sending the facsimile information automatically based onaccount settings and/or error status. The retry logic may be differentdue to the circumstances of the error condition. In one scenario, if theconnection to the at least one facsimile peer system (290) was establishand a portion of the information was successfully transmitted, theetherFAX® cloud data center (260) may elect to begin retransmission atan intermediate portion of the information stream. This normally happensif a multipage document is submitted for transmission and only at leastat one of the pages was successfully communicated. In this case theetherFAX® cloud data center (260) may elect to resume or restart thecommunication with the at least one peer facsimile system (290) at thebeginning of the page or at the point where the error occurred.Alternatively, the etherFAX® cloud data center (260) may elect to resendthe entire document based on account configuration parameters or errorstatus condition (i.e. remote system out of paper, etc.).

Yet another exemplary embodiment exists if the at least one peerfacsimile system is no longer available at its current networkidentifier. In this case, no matter what the retransmit logic actionsare, the communications will not succeed to the at least one facsimilepeer system (290), thus a catastrophic error may be returned through thedata network to initiating fax server (200) and ultimately theoriginating application (230,250) or device (240).

It is to be appreciated that other alternative embodiments of handlingsuccessful or error status conditions may be applied without departingfrom the spirit of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Reception of facsimile information from the at least one facsimile peersystem (290), through the etherFAX® cloud data center (260) to faxserver (200) follows a similar but reverse path to the sending offacsimile information. Specifically, when the at least one facsimilepeer system (290) wants to send facsimile information to fax server(200), the at least one facsimile system (290) would establish theappropriate communications connection through the at least one of thetelephony service providers (280) to the etherFAX® cloud data center(260). Based on an incoming network identifier associated with theincoming fax information, the etherFAX® cloud data center (260) looks upthe appropriate etherFAX® account information to determine theorganization the facsimile information is destined for. As describedpreviously, there are maybe a multitude of data communications paths(270) and/or security methodologies (230) employed to enable thecommunications of the facsimile information back to the correctvirtualized etherFAX® adapter (210) coupled to fax server (200). Uponsuccessful transmission of the facsimile information to the fax server(200) from the etherFAX® cloud data center (260), the fax server mayconvert the inbound information to a variety of formats suitable forsubsequent consumption by general applications (200), purpose builtapplications (250), and/or devices (240). Alternatively, as exemplifiedby prior art, fax server (200) may queue the incoming fax informationfor later retrieval if the general applications (200), purpose builtapplications (250), and/or devices (240) are disconnected or are notcommunicating with the fax server (200) for any reason.

Errors may also occur during any stage of the reception process. Forinstances, it is possible that during communications between the atleast one facsimile peer system (290) and the etherFAX® cloud datacenter (260), a disruption of service may occur over any of thetelephony providers (280). Different scenarios may occur based on errorstatus, the etherFAX® account parameters, or when an error occurs duringtransmission. If for example, appropriate communications could not beestablished between the at least one facsimile system (290) and theetherFAX® cloud data center (260). This error may be handled locally bythe etherFAX® cloud data center (260) as it might not have enoughinformation to determine what etherFAX® account the inbound connectionis for. However, if a partial transmission was received for a giventransaction, enough information may be received to allow the etherFAX®cloud data center (260) to determine the fax server (200) thecommunications was destined for. In this instance the error status forthat operation may be propagated back to the determined fax server(200), and ultimately to the general applications (200), purpose builtapplications (250), and/or devices (240), thus enabling the appropriatecorrective action to take place.

It is to be appreciated that, in both the send and receive cases, thecommunications between the fax sever (200) and the general applications(200), purpose built applications (250), and/or devices (240), are notmodified, thus leaving the communications path and logic, as well as theconfiguration of policy and/or business rules logic of fax server (200)operations to the organization. As such the organization maintainsinternal control over the distribution of the facsimile informationwithout relinquishing these services to the etherFAX® cloud data center(260).

In an alternate embodiment, and as indicated previously, there may be amultitude of fax servers (200) communicating with an etherFAX® clouddata center (260). For the sake of clarity, additional fax servers (200)were not outlined in FIG. 2. To ones schooled in the art, it would beobvious that additional advantages main be gained. For example, faxserver (200) and a second fax server using the mnemonic (200 a) belongto the same organization, but geographically dispersed. If fax server(200) and fax server (200 a) both availed themselves of the services ofan etherFAX® cloud data center (260), the facsimile communications maynever need to traverse telephony service providers (280) networks. Inthis instance, the facsimile communications could be routed internallywithin an etherFAX® cloud data center (260), potentially increasing thereliability, and further reducing the costs, overhead, and/or timeassociated with communicating facsimile information. A further benefitthat may be realized is that the communication of the facsimileinformation could done securely between fax server (200) and the atleast one additional fax server (200 a), thus provide an enhanced levelof service not available with traditional facsimile communications. Itis also to be appreciated that the multitude of fax servers (200) may beowned and operated across organizational boundaries. In such a scenario,these enhanced level of services would be available to the organizationsassociated with the etherFAX® service.

In yet another exemplary embodiment, and as indicated previously, theremay be more than one etherFAX® cloud data center (260), geographicallyor logistically dispersed for a variety of reasons, including, but notlimited to redundancy, capacity planning, and/or cost. For the sake ofclarity, additional etherFAX® cloud data centers (260) were not outlinedin FIG. 2. To ones schooled in the art, it would be obvious thatadditional advantages main be gained in such a configuration. Considerthe example of an etherFAX® cloud data center (260) loosely coupled toan additional etherFAX® cloud data center using the mnemonic (260 a)that are geographically dispersed. In this case etherFAX® cloud datacenter (260) and etherFAX® cloud data center (260 a) may be looselycoupled to the same or different regional telephony service providers(280). When a facsimile communications is instantiated between faxserver (200) and etherFAX® cloud data center (260), etherFAX® cloud datacenter (260) could determine based on the destination of the facsimileinformation to the at least one facsimile peer system (290), that it maybe better to hand off the communications to etherFAX® cloud data center(260 a), using its regional interconnects with telephony serviceproviders (280). This could result in lower costs, as only regionaltariff rates would be charge for the communications, instead of longdistance charges. Other reasons also exist. If the inbound facsimilecommunications is marked with a high priority level of service (i.e.marked urgent), and all the local telephony resources of etherFAX® clouddata center (260) are being consumed, handing off the communications toetherFAX® cloud data center (260 a) may allow the communications to becompleted in a more timely manner. It is to be appreciated that thisfunctionality could be achieved in a multitude of ways, including butnot limited to being handled entirely within the intercommunicationsbetween etherFAX® cloud data centers (260, 260 a) or having etherFAX®cloud data center (260) redirect the fax server (200) to instantiate theappropriate communications between itself and etherFAX® cloud datacenter (260 a).

It is also to be appreciated that other alternative embodiments andreasons for enabling intercommunications between etherFAX® cloud datacenter (260) and the at least one additional etherFAX® cloud data center(260 a), include, but not limited to the secure communications offacsimile information or not routing the facsimile information betweenfax server (200) and the at least one additional fax server (200 a) viatelephony service providers (280), may be applied without departing fromthe spirit of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In one exemplary embodiment, the internal operations of the etherFAX®virtual fax driver (210) described in FIG. 3 operates as in thefollowing manner. At device startup time, the virtual driver startuproutine (300) is executed. During startup, the driver accesses itsconfiguration information that enables it to determine which of the atleast one etherFAX® cloud data centers (260) it may establishcommunications to. Additional parameters, such as authenticationcredential information, retry logic, or other policy information such astime of operations, quality of service, priority, time offset for bulktransfers, etc. may also be accessed at this time. It may also check tosee if it has the necessary access to the appropriate data channels toestablish communications with the configured etherFAX® cloud datacenters (260). If the configuration information is invalid, or access tothe appropriate data communication channels is not operational, theetherFAX® virtual fax driver (210) may be configured to alert the systemadministrator that there is an issue through a variety of ways,including but not limited to email, SMS, and or system event logmessaging.

If enough of the parameters pass startup self test to allowinstantiation of communications with etherFAX® cloud data centers (260),the etherFAX® virtual fax driver (210) may proceeds to authenticatingthe etherFAX® account (310). The etherFAX® virtual fax driver (210)instantiates the appropriate communications with the etherFAX® clouddata centers (260), and exchanges the authentication credentialinformation. If the credential information fails, the etherFAX® virtualfax driver (210) may be configured to alert the system administratorthrough the previously enumerated methods, and await further interactionwith the administrator. As exemplified by prior art, any outboundfacsimile information transferred to fax server (200) may be queued byfax server (200), and await corrective action from the systemadministrator.

If authentication succeeds, the etherFAX® virtual fax driver (210)proceeds to step (320) to retrieve the number of allocated portsassociated with the account. The number of ports associated with theaccount that are retrieved can be loosely associated with the number ofconcurrent telephone service provider lines that may be connected to thefax server (200) as exemplified by prior art. Once the port parametersare established, the etherFAX® virtual fax driver (210) proceeds to step(320) to initialize the port/channels thus allowing more than one streamof facsimile communications to occur simultaneously to accommodate theorganizations work load. If initialization of the ports/channels (320)results in an error situation, the etherFAX® virtual fax driver (210)may be configured to alert the system administrator through thepreviously enumerated methods, and await further interaction with theadministrator. Upon successful instantiation of the virtualports/communication channels, the etherFAX® virtual fax driver (210)enters its main loop of operations. Conceptually the main loop ofoperations consists of two threads of operation: one for transmission offacsimile information and the other for reception of facsimileinformation. It is to be appreciated that these operations can beexecuted either serially, in parallel, as well as handling more than oneoperation at a time based on the environment that the etherFAX® virtualfax driver (210) is implemented in and the number of virtualports/channels assigned to the organization. In the most limited case,the main loop consists of serially checking if there is facsimileinformation to be transmitted to the at least one facsimile peer system(290) and if there is facsimile information to be received from thefacsimile peer system (290). The precedence order of checking the statusof the operation (340, 390) may be implementation specific and notconsequential to the spirit of the exemplary embodiment. In a moreadvanced environment, each operation may happen in parallel, and theorder of checking the status may happen asynchronously to one another.

In the event the checking of status indicates that work needs to beaccomplished, the etherFAX® virtual fax driver (210) determines theappropriate next step of operation. If facsimile information is readyfor transmission, the etherFAX® virtual driver (210) continues to step(350). At this point, the etherFAX® virtual driver (210) binds itself tothe first available port (350) and delivers the facsimile information(360) to the etherFAX® cloud data center (260). The etherFAX® virtualdriver (210) continues to step (370), and monitors the status of thefacsimile transmittal until the termination of the request. Upontermination of the request, the etherFAX® virtual driver (210) proceedsto step (380) and checks the status of the operation. If an erroroccurs, the etherFAX® virtual driver (210) may take corrective action asdescribe previously, and/or may propagate the error back to theoriginating application (230,250) or device (240). Upon successfulcompletion, the status may also be propagated back to the originatingapplication (230,250) or device (240).

If checking the status indicates that facsimile information is ready tobe received (390), the etherFAX® virtual driver (210) proceeds to step(395) and instantiates the appropriate communications to receive thefacsimile information from the etherFAX® cloud data center (260). TheetherFAX® virtual driver (210) consumes the inbound facsimileinformation along with the status of the operations. Upon termination ofthe request, depending on the status of the operation, the facsimileinformation may be queued by the fax server (200), signaled to theintended recipient (399) via an appropriate electronic format, or in thecase of an error, the status of the operation may be propagated back toapplication (230,250) or device (240) for further processing.

Additionally the status of either operation may be also logged to asystem event logger, and depending on the severity of the termination ofthe request, the status may be indicated back to the administratorthrough the previously enumerated methods to initiate any appropriatecorrective action.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 4 (etherFAX®Web Service), illustrates the service interface exposed over the atleast one data network interconnect to at the at least one etherFAX®cloud data center (260). At startup of the service (400), the etherFAX®Web Service initializes itself to enable the acceptance of inboundcommunications from the at least one fax server (200). Once allresources are allocated (HTTP(S) listeners, etc.), the etherFAX® WebService proceeds to step (410) and awaits inbound connections at step(405). Upon indications of an inbound facsimile communications, theetherFAX® Web Service proceeds to step (410) to accept incomingconnections. Once the inbound communications is instantiated, etherFAX®Web Service proceeds step (415) to determine if the connection waspreviously authenticated. It is to be appreciated that there are manyalternative methods of (re)instantiating communications between faxserver (200) and the etherFAX® cloud data center (260). In oneembodiment, persistent HTTP(S) connections may be instantiated enablingthe authentication process to happen periodically and only when theconnection times out, allowing the etherFAX® Web Service to proceeds tostep (415). However, it is also to be understood, that authenticationmay happen on each instantiation of communications between fax server(200) and the etherFAX® cloud data center (260) depending on thecommunications methodology used. If the connection is not authenticated,the etherFAX® Web Service process proceeds to step (420) to validate theincoming authentication credentials. At step (425), the etherFAX® WebService authenticates the credentials against the etherFAX® accountinformation. If there is an error authenticating the inboundcommunications session, an error is returned to the initiating party,and the etherFAX® Web Service returns to step (410) and awaits furtherinbound requests.

If the authentication process succeeds, the etherFAX® Web Servicecontinues to step (435) to dispatch the inbound request. The request canbe one of a number of different operations either related to thecommunications of facsimile information or command, control, or statusof the etherFAX® account. For the sake of clarity, FIG. 4 has onlyillustrated the high level operations of submitting facsimileinformation (440), canceling a facsimile operation (445),monitor/reports progress of a facsimile operation (450), and/or checkingfor received/inbound facsimile information (455). It is to be understoodby those schooled in the art that the listed operations are to beconstrued as non limiting, as other operations such checking theetherFAX® account balance, determining number of faxes transmitted andreceived, changing account credentials, etc. can also be access throughthe etherFAX® Web Service interface. Furthermore, it is to beappreciated that the well-known and standard model of web services isonly one exemplary embodiment of a protocol used to enable distributedprocessing of between cooperating peer computing systems. Other remoteprocedure call technologies can also be used to accomplish similarresults.

In the exemplary embodiment, the requested operation can be thought ofas a job object, transaction, or work request. To submit facsimileinformation for subsequent transmittal work request (440), the etherFAX®Web Service process proceeds to step (460) and passes the submitted workrequest to the etherFAX® Board server process illustrated in FIG. 5. TheetherFAX® Web Service process then proceeds to step (480) and returnsthat status of the submit work request to the calling peer. The processthen returns to step (405) and awaits additional incoming work requests.

Similarly, if the requested operation is to cancel (445) a previouslysubmitted fax work request, the etherFAX® Web Service dispatchercontinues to step (465) and contacts the etherFAX® Board server processto cancel a previously submitted work request. If previously submittedfacsimile work request is pending or in progress, the etherFAX® Boardserver will try and terminate the work request depending at what stageof communications it is in with the at least one peer facsimile system(290). If the transaction has already be completed before the cancelwork request is recognized by the etherFAX® Board server process, thecancel operation will fail. In either case, the appropriate status willbe returned (490) to the calling peer, indicating the status of thetransaction of interest as well as the status operation itself. Theprocess then returns to step (405) and awaits additional incoming workrequests.

A consumer of the etherFAX® Web Service may also want to monitor (450)the progress of a previously submitted or the current operation of atransaction that is in progress. In these cases, the etherFAX® WebService dispatcher continues to step (470) and contacts the etherFAX®Board server process to get the current status of the specific workrequest. Once the status is received, the etherFAX® Web Service processproceeds to step (490) and returns the appropriate status informationbased on the type work request that was of interest.

To receive facsimile information from the one etherFAX® cloud datacenter (260), the calling peer contacts the etherFAX® Web Service tocheck for inbound (455) facsimile communications. If there is anyinbound facsimile information waiting, the etherFAX® Web Service processproceeds to step (475) to transfer the information from the etherFAX®Web Service to the calling peer. The transferred information alsocontains ancillary information associated with the facsimile data,including but not limited to such as the originating phone number (ifavailable), network identifier, length, and/or error/success status.After the transfer is completed, the etherFAX® Web Service processreturns to step (405) waiting for additional work request.

It is to be understood that in the precedence order of dispatching therequested operation (440,445,450,455) may be implementation specific andnot consequential to the spirit of the exemplary embodiment. In a moreadvanced environment, each operation may happen in parallel, and theorder of operation may happen asynchronously to one another.

In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 5 (etherFAX®Board Server), illustrates the service interface exposed to send andaccept facsimile information via telephony service providers (280) fromthe at least one facsimile peer system (290). It also illustrates theexposed interface for exchanging work requests with the etherFAX® WebService process. At startup of the service (500), the etherFAX® BoardServer process initializes itself and proceeds to step (510) to retrieveits service configuration information. If there is any error in theconfiguration information that prevents the etherFAX® Board Serverprocess from proceeding, it logs a message and exits, awaiting correctaction from the administrator.

Upon acceptance of the configuration information, the etherFAX® BoardServer process continues to step (520) and initializes the facsimilecommunications hardware that enables sending and receiving facsimileinformation from the at least one facsimile peer system (290) viatelephony service providers (280). It is to be understood that thefacsimile communications hardware may be capable of handlingcommunications with more than one facsimile peer system (290)simultaneously. Each concurrent communications stream that can behandled can be considered a separate port or channel, as well known toones schooled in the art. If an error occurs during the initializationphase of the hardware, the etherFAX® Board Server process logs a messagefor the administrator. Depending on the severity of the error condition,the etherFAX® Board Server process may also exit and await correctiveaction before it can be restarted.

Once the etherFAX® Board Server process has initialized the facsimilehardware under its control, it enters its main loop at step (530). Atthis point the etherFAX® Board Server process is waiting to receive workrequests from the etherFAX® Web Service process or receive indicationsfrom the facsimile hardware. Once a work request is passed to theetherFAX® Board Server process, it validates whether or not thetransaction is ready to be processed at step (540). If not it returns tostep (530) awaiting a valid request. If the work request ready and it isto send facsimile information to the at least one facsimile peer system,the etherFAX® Board Server process proceeds to step (550). At this pointthe etherFAX® Board Server process binds to the most appropriate channelto use to send the facsimile information over. It then delivers tiefacsimile information to the facsimile hardware, along with othernecessary information, such as but not limited to, phone number ornetwork identifier of the at least one peer facsimile system, color orblack and white, caller subscriber identifier, etc., that are needed toestablish the appropriate communications with the peer system.

In an embodiment of the etherFAX® Board server process, due to theaggregation of facsimile hardware and the interconnection with the atleast one telephony service provided (280) during transmittal of thefacsimile information the etherFAX® Board server process will try andconfigure the origination network identifier or phone number to beconsistent with the originating organizations information for caller IDpurposes. It also takes care to maintain that the caller subscriberidentifier (CSID) is included as part of the outbound facsimileinformation.

Once this information is passed to the facsimile hardware, itinstantiates the necessary communications with the at least one peerfacsimile system (290). During this time the etherFAX® Board Serverprocess proceeds to step (570) and monitors the status of the operation.If the operation successfully completes the transfer of the facsimileinformation to the at least one peer facsimile system (290), theetherFAX® Board Server process continues to step (580) and logs an auditmessage tracking the status of the send transaction. At step (590), theetherFAX® Board Server process completes the work request and allowingthe etherFAX® Web service process to query its successful status.

A multitude of error can also occur, including but not limited to, noanswer, busy, peer unavailable do to no paper, out of ink/toner, etc.Other communication errors could occur where communications isterminated during the middle of the transfer. Depending on the severityof the error, etherFAX® account configuration, etc., corrective actionthat where enumerated previously may be executed locally by theetherFAX® Board. Server process. Other error status may have to behandled by the originating peer. In either case, upon determination bythe etherFAX® Board Server process has finished handling the specifictransaction, it proceeds to step (580) and logs a message for theadministrator. The work request is then completed at (590) allowing theetherFAX® Web service process to query its status. At this point theetherFAX® Board Server process may check if any inbound facsimileinformation is to be received. If not, the etherFAX® Board Serverprocess returns to step (530) and waits for further work to do.

If an inbound facsimile information is received, the etherFAX® BoardServer process proceeds to step (595) check the status of the inboundcommunications. If the facsimile information is ready to be consumed,the etherFAX® Board Server process looks up the associated etherFAX®account the incoming facsimile information is destine for. It thenassigns an owner and a channel to the communications, thus allowing theinbound facsimile information to be received. Once the facsimileinformation is successfully received, the etherFAX® Board Server processlogs an audit message and completes the transaction allowing theetherFAX® Web Service process to query the state of the receivedfacsimile information.

A multitude of error can also occur, including but not limited to, nochannels available, no account, account suspended, etc. Othercommunication errors could occur where communications is terminatedduring the middle of the transfer. Depending on the severity of theerror, etherFAX® account configuration, etc., corrective action may beexecuted locally by the etherFAX® Board Server process. Other errorstatus may have to be handled by the originating peer facsimile system(290). In either case, upon determination by the etherFAX® Board Serverprocess that it has finished handling the specific receive operation, itlogs a message for the administrator. The job is then completed at (599)allowing the etherFAX® Web service process to query its status. At thispoint, the etherFAX® Board Server process returns to step (530) andwaits for further work to do.

It is to be understood that in the precedence order of checking thestatus of the operation (540,595) may be implementation specific and notconsequential to the spirit of the exemplary embodiment. In a moreadvanced environment, each operation may happen in parallel, and theorder of checking the status may happen asynchronously to one another.

It is to be understood that within an etherFAX® cloud data center (260),their may be more that one etherFAX® Web Service processes running, thusenabling the system to process more than one request at a time. Theprocessed be deploy as separate threads in a single computer process,multiple instances of the processes on a single computer system, oracross multiple computer systems, whether they be operating in a virtualmachine environment or not.

Furthermore it is to be understood that within an etherFAX® cloud datacenter (260), their may be more that one etherFAX® Board Serverprocesses running, thus enabling the system to process more than onerequest at a time. The processed be deploy as separate threads in asingle computer process, multiple instances of the processes on a singlecomputer system, or across multiple computer systems, whether they beoperating in a virtual machine environment or not.

Additionally, the etherFAX® Web Service and etherFAX® Board Server maybe running of different computer systems, whether they be operating in avirtual machine environment or not as the interface between the servicesmay be accomplish thorough a web service interface or other suitableremote procedure call mechanism. Furthermore the different computersystems housing each server may be geographically or logisticallydispersed for a variety of reasons, including but not limited toredundancy, capacity, and/or cost.

Embodiments of the present invention may be implemented in hardware,software, firmware, or combinations thereof.

Embodiments of the present invention may also be deployed in multipledevices or in a single device.

Embodiments of the present invention may also be configured whereinelements of fax server technology and/or the etherFAX® virtual driver(210) may be implemented totally within general applications (230),purpose built applications (250) and/or devices (240), thus notrequiring the services of a intermediary fax server (200). Thesemodifications allow for communications to happen between generalapplications (230), purpose built applications (250) and/or devices(240) and the etherFAX® cloud data center (260).

It will be readily understood by those schooled in the art that thepresent invention enables additional advantage that may be realized byan organization or customer, as they can now avail themselves of theaggregated services offered by the etherFAX® cloud data center (260),providing them access to solutions not previously available withincreased economies of scale. Without these advantages set forth, thetotal cost of replicating these services by the customer or organizationmay be cost prohibitive, potentially putting an organization or customerat a competitive disadvantage.

It will be readily understood by those persons skilled in the art thatthe present invention is susceptible to broad utility and application.Many embodiments and adaptations of the present invention other thanthose herein described, as well as many variations, modifications andequivalent arrangements, will be apparent from or reasonably suggestedby the present invention and foregoing description thereof, withoutdeparting from the substance or scope of the invention.

While the foregoing illustrates and describes exemplary embodiments ofthis invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limitedto the construction disclosed herein. The invention can be embodied inother specific forms without departing from its spirit or essentialattributes.

We claim:
 1. In a distributed computing model, a facsimilecommunications environment comprising: a facsimile communicationsservice shared by one or more cooperating facsimile capable systems, thefacsimile communications service configured to establish connectionswith and communicate information between at least one cooperatingfacsimile capable system and at least one peer facsimile capable systemto enable the at least one cooperating facsimile capable system and theat least one peer facsimile capable system to exchange facsimileinformation via the service, the facsimile communications service beingaccessible via at least one data network interconnect; the facsimilecommunications service comprising: at least one aggregated facsimilecommunications interconnect; a port and/or channel communicatorconfigured to communicate with the at least one cooperating facsimilecapable system over a data network interconnect; at least one processorthat detects (a) send requests from the at least one cooperatingfacsimile capable system, and (b) status indications from the at leastone aggregated facsimile communications interconnect, the at least oneprocessor, in processing a send request, being structured to performoperations comprising: (1) obtaining from the at least one cooperatingfacsimile capable system at least one phone number and/or networkidentifier of the at least one peer facsimile capable system to send to,(2) selectively binding to a channel provided by the port and/or channelcommunicator to receive transmission information from the at least onecooperating facsimile capable system, and (3) transmitting the receivedtransmission information via the at least one aggregated facsimilecommunications interconnect to the at least one peer facsimile capablesystem, the at least one processor, upon detecting indications from theat least one aggregated facsimile communications interconnect: (i)associating the at least one phone number and/or network identifier withthe received facsimile transmission information and (ii) communicatingthe received transmission information to the at least one peer facsimilecapable system via the at least one aggregated facsimile communicationsinterconnect.
 2. The facsimile communications environment of claim 1wherein the port and/or channel communicator communicates over theInternet with plural cooperating facsimile capable systems.
 3. Thefacsimile communications environment of claim 1 wherein the at least oneaggregated facsimile communications interconnect is configured tosimultaneously communicate with multiple different peer facsimilecapable systems.
 4. The facsimile communications environment of claim 1wherein the at least one processor configured to associate anorigination network identifier and/or phone number to be consistent withan originating organizations' information for caller identificationpurposes, thereby enabling the at least one aggregated facsimilecommunications interconnect, when authorized, to masquerade as anoriginating organizations.
 5. The facsimile communications environmentof claim 1 wherein selectively binding to a channel comprises binding toa most appropriate one of a plurality of channels to use to transmit thereceived facsimile information over, and transmitting the receivedtransmission information comprises communicating the receivedtransmission information and a caller subscriber identifier via the atleast one aggregated facsimile communication interconnect to the atleast one peer facsimile capable system.
 6. The facsimile communicationsenvironment of claim 1 wherein the at least one processor binds to achannel by temporarily assigning a consumer to a channel, therebyallocating shared aggregated facsimile communications interconnectresources for use in handling a request.
 7. The facsimile communicationsenvironment of claim 1 wherein selectively binding to a channelcomprises selecting between a multitude of communications interconnectsto enable communications of facsimile status information back to the atleast one cooperating facsimile capable system that originated therequest.
 8. The facsimile communications service of claim 1, wherein theat least one peer facsimile capable system comprises a secondcooperating facsimile system.
 9. A distributed facsimile communicationssystem shared by at least one cooperating facsimile capable system andat least one peer facsimile capable system, the facsimile communicationssystem configured to establish connections with and communicateinformation between the at least one cooperating facsimile capablesystem and the at least one peer facsimile capable system to enable theat least one cooperating facsimile capable system and the at least onepeer facsimile capable system to exchange information via the system,the facsimile communications system being accessible via at least onedata network interconnect; the facsimile communications systemcomprising: at least one aggregated facsimile communicationsinterconnect; a communicator configured to communicate with the at leastone cooperating facsimile capable system over a data networkinterconnect; and at least one processor configured to detect receiverequests from the at least one cooperating facsimile capable system andstatus indications from the at least one aggregated facsimilecommunications interconnect, the at least one processor, in processing areceive request, being structured to perform operations comprising: (1)obtaining, via the communications established with the at least one peerfacsimile capable system facsimile transmission information comprisingat least one phone number and/or network identifier of the at least onepeer facsimile capable system, (2) selectively binding to a channelprovided by the communicator, and (3) transmitting the receivedfacsimile transmission information obtained from communicationsestablished with the at least one peer facsimile capable system to theat least one cooperating facsimile capable system via the at least oneaggregated facsimile communications interconnect, the at least oneprocessor, upon detecting indications from the at least one aggregatedfacsimile communications interconnect: (i) associating the at least onephone number and/or network identifier with the received facsimiletransmission information and (ii) communicating the receivedtransmission information to the at least one cooperating facsimilecapable system via the at least one data network interconnect.
 10. Thefacsimile communications service of claim 9, wherein the at least onepeer facsimile capable system comprises a second cooperating facsimilesystem.
 11. The distributed facsimile communications system of claim 9wherein the at least one aggregated facsimile communicationsinterconnect is configured to simultaneously communicate with multipledifferent peer facsimile capable systems.
 12. The distributed facsimilecommunications system of claim 9 wherein the at least one processorconfigured to associate an origination network identifier and/or phonenumber to be consistent with an originating organizations' informationfor caller identification purposes, thereby enabling the at least oneaggregated facsimile communications interconnect, when authorized, tomasquerade as an originating organization.
 13. The distributed facsimilecommunications system of claim 9 wherein selectively binding to achannel comprises binding to a most appropriate one of a plurality ofchannels to use to transmit the received facsimile transmissioninformation over, and transmitting the received transmission informationcomprises communicating the received transmission information and acaller subscriber identifier via the at least one aggregated facsimilecommunication interconnect to the at least one cooperating facsimilecapable system.
 14. The distributed facsimile communications system ofclaim 9 wherein the at least one processor binds to a channel bytemporarily assigning a consumer to a channel, thereby allocating sharedaggregated facsimile communications interconnect resources for use inhandling a request.
 15. The distributed facsimile communications systemof claim 9 wherein selectively binding to a channel comprises selectingbetween a multitude of communications interconnects to enablecommunications of facsimile status information back to the at least onepeer facsimile capable system.